Interactive video startup Rapt Media is working to make viewers actually engage with branded content on the web, not just view it. As more and more brands are measuring their digital success in view counts, CEO and founder of Rapt Media, Erika Trautman, wants to remind them that the numbers are meaningless unless viewers have a truly memorable experience with the content.

HBO launched season five of Game of Thrones and for the first time, cord cutters were able to catch the premiere online on the HBO Now streaming service. Bloomberg’s Ramy Inocencio reports on “In The Loop.”

You’ve finally done it: you’ve reached a subscriber count that has attracted the attention of a company who’d like to pay you cold, hard, delicious cash to make a video for you incorporating their product.

You want to be rich, don’t you? And not just a little bit rich — you want to be filthy stinking wealthy. Private jets, private islailio, the company that made it easy to make phone calls and SMS’ via an API call, has today announced its first big expansion beyond that: live video calling.nds, snooty butlers who cater to your every whim? And you want to do it on YouTube? Well, we’ve got a term to help you get there: branding.

Barcroft Media has made content deals with UK distributors DRG and TVF. Both distributors specialize in documentary style content, which Barcroft says it will now have another 25 hours worth to stream on its YouTube channel, Barcroft TV, and other digital platforms.

Watchup, a Tribune Media-backed startup with a service that personalized newscasts to Internet-video devices, has expanded its reach to about 80% of the local markets in the U.S. through deals with Meredith, E.W. Scripps Co. and three other TV broadcast groups.

When I describe Letv as the Netflix of China, Mark Li corrects me. “It’s the other way around,” he says. “Netflix is the Letv of the US.” He has a point. Letv launched its Internet video streaming service three years before Netflix (2004 versus 2007).

Jillian Michaels, the fitness trainer and former host of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” reality show, has accused Lionsgate of failing to compensate her for videos the studio posted to its YouTube fitness channel — to the tune of $10 million.

This is the first film of GRB’s to star digital talent. Famous YouTubers Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart have leading roles in the feature film, which was initially distributed online via VHX before becoming available on Netflix in November.

Hearst is latching on to the recent craze for live-broadcasting video apps, with the media company planning to host live feeds on Twitter’s Periscope Monday night across all of its 18 magazine and digital brands.

We’ve heard PopSugar is the latest online content company that Japanese conglomerate Rakuten is about to snap up. These things could always fall apart, but should the deal go through, we’re told it will happen in the next couple of weeks and that Rakuten will buy PopSugar for $580 million.

Gaumont TV Europe is digging into its second international drama co-production with the 12-part English-language 1001. The contemporary thriller is created by Lars Lundström whose hit Swedish series Real Humans has been adapted as Humans for AMC and Channel 4, and whose Tusenbröder is being remade as Brothers In Crime by Valhalla Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions.